Bloodbath
by 1701dragonflies
Summary: Drabble based on 1.17. Alaric POV. As he watches Damon and Elena bicker about her going with them to rescue Stefan, Alaric realises that Damon's right: it will be a bloodbath, just not the one the vampire's talking about.


Bloodbath

Drabble based on 1.17. Alaric POV. As he watches Damon and Elena bicker about her going with them to rescue Stefan, Alaric realises that Damon's right: it will be a bloodbath, just not the one the vampire's talking about.

Please be nice; I'm new to this fandom but it took all of five minutes to convert me to a Damon-Elena 'shipper. This little drabble popped into me head as I was watching this episode. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or anything remotely connected with it.

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They've made it an art form, this bickering thing that they do.

Alaric wasn't quite sure what to think when Elena and Damon showed up at the school asking for his help; they didn't look like they knew what to think themselves, but it didn't stop them from standing there, asking him for his help.

Damon Salvatore has balls, Alaric will give him that much. Not many men could stand in front of the man whose wife they killed or worse and ask for their help to save his brother. But he is.

But then, Elena Gilbert has balls, too. Not many women would stand shoulder to shoulder with the man who killed her birth mother and ask her husband for help to save her boyfriend. But she is, so maybe that makes them kindred spirits, in a way. Or maybe there's just no maybe about it.

Alaric isn't sure what that says about Elena's feelings for Damon, Stefan, or both.

He doesn't dwell on what it says about Damon's feelings, because unless the emotion Damon feels is guilt for killing Isobel, Alaric isn't interested.

Alaric hasn't had much interaction with Elena. He knows that his predecessor thought she had promise and her brother's a waste of space, and he knows that he thinks about her Aunt Jenna a lot more than he probably should, but truth be told, he isn't sure what to think. His predecessor thought she was smart. Alaric thinks she's all kinds of dumb for wanting to be involved in this nightmarish world in which he's come to dwell, but that's a moot point since she's here, standing over his desk with those big brown eyes she has, asking him for his help, 'for Stefan.'

And Alaric, like the idiot that he is, has entered into an alliance with his dead wife's biological daughter and the vampire who made her dead.

Who's the bigger dumbass now?

Anyway, Alaric doesn't know Elena and doesn't want to know Damon (except where his weak spots are), but he does know enough to know that the way those two go at it, they've had a lot of practice. You can't exchange tit-for-tat blows like they do without it.

Practice. It's a funny thing, really. Gets to be a habit after a while, keeps the activity fresh in your mind. Can be either a joy or a curse, depending on the activity in question.

They've made it an art form, this bickering thing that they do. Even he can see that and this is the first time he's seen them together.

Alaric isn't sure whether Damon and Elena agree, but he knows enough to know that people who are as indifferent to each other as they both repeatedly claim to be, don't fight that way. They don't fight with passion in their eyes and fire on their tongues and raised voices and barbs that fly too freely from each other's mouths.

They're arguing about Stefan. Or at least, that's the story, the words they fling at each other. They're arguing about Damon's plan to save Stefan. They're arguing about Elena wanting to go with Damon to save Stefan. They're arguing about Damon not being able to protect Elena while they're saving Stefan.

So really, they're not arguing about Stefan at all. They're arguing about Damon and Elena.

"You need me." Elena says.

Damon dismisses her, but Alaric doesn't miss the way his eyes flare at her words: "This is Stefan we're talking about."

_Uh, no_, Alaric wants to scream has his head moves backwards and forwards from one angry face to the other. _Elena, honey, its really not. In fact, Stefan is the farthest thing from what you're both talking about_.

Not even Elena can miss the derision in Damon's voice as he talks about Elena's love for Stefan, and truth be told, Alaric sees his point. He's seen the pair of them together, around school (when they both bother to turn up), at the Mystic Grill, at the '50s party. They're … nauseating. Happy, but happy in that way people have when there's no passion, no drive, no emotional highs. Alaric has seen Elena and Stefan together many times, and he's never seen them interact with the same ferocity and fierce beauty that brings Damon and Elena together over that table of weapons during the Mystic Storm.

And there it is: Damon's words: I can't protect you. A bloodbath that no-one will walk away from. I know. I get it.

_Of course he gets it_, Alaric wants to scream. _Of course you do. You're thinking it about her, about Elena, right now. You're thinking about it whenever you talk to her, because if you didn't get it then you wouldn't fight with her like this. You wouldn't make it about her, about her safety. Its not about Stefan, or about her being Stefan's girlfriend. Its about her._

Elena clearly gets it too. She would fight with him so viciously if she didn't. She wouldn't stare at him with those dark, hooded eyes when she hears the way his voice softens.

_I get it._

She hears it.

So she stares at Damon with those wide, dark eyes and long dark hair and it hits Alaric, then. Despite the fact that Damon's a self-serving vampyric asshole who murdered his wife, and Elena seems like a sweet girl who's in love with Damon's brother, Alaric sees it. He sees the passion, the fire. He sees the way their postures mimic each other, the way their clothes mimic each other, the way their long hair is unkempt and ruffled, the way their eyes blaze in unison. They look right together, look right the way Elena and Stefan don't, Stefan with his perfectly coiffed hair and his neatly-pressed clothes and his gentle manner. Elena doesn't need someone to be gentle with her. Alaric can see that as clear as he can see that Damon's in love with Elena. He can see that Elena's fire and spark would be dampened by Stefan's gentleness, his constant fear for her safety.

Damon, as much as Alaric hates to admit it, wouldn't be gentle, and that's what Elena needs. There's nothing gentle about the way they fight, about the way they hurl words at each other, but Elena seems to thrive on it, on the challenge Damon presents, the challenge she presents to Damon, on the challenge they present to each other.

Alaric feels guilty for even thinking it. Damon's the man who killed his wife, the man he's spent years hunting. He feels guilty for thinking that Elena should be with someone who's blatantly bad for her. Elena should be with someone who's good for someone. She should be with someone human, for a start, but she should be with someone who's good for her. Stefan's good for her. Not Damon.

Damon sums it up later, of course, as he steps across the body of that poor woman to gain access to her house to save Stefan: _she's human, and I'm not_.

He isn't talking about Elena, of course, but there's something in the vampire's expression that makes Alaric think that Damon knows exactly what Alaric's been thinking about his brother's girlfriend, and it's a dark thought indeed, but Alaric can't help but think what Elena and Damon would be like together if she was a vampire. Would she be so sure of her love for Stefan, then? Vampirism accelerates and ignites the senses, after all; would she continue to ignore the fire that burns inside her and Damon when they're together? Would Stefan's gentleness be enough for a creature of the night? Does Stefan see the fire that burns in Elena when she's near Damon, when he's near her? Does he see the same things Alaric does when he looks at Damon and Elena together: the way they look together, so perfect in that fiery, twisted way?

If he does, then Alaric realises that Damon was right, that afternoon in his classroom as the Mystic Storm pelted the ground: it would be a bloodbath. Just not the one the Damon was talking about.

FIN.


End file.
